Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

A medical-marijuana bill months in the making could see more changes Wednesday when state lawmakers for the first time take up the complicated task of regulating the quickly growing industry, according to the bill sponsor.

The bill focuses on more closely linking doctors and their pot-seeking patients by breaking ties between doctors and dispensaries, requiring doctors who recommend marijuana to have licenses in good standing and requiring a bona fide doctor-patient relationship.

State health department data from mid-August showed that three quarters of the recommendations for marijuana were written by 15 doctors, half of whom were banned from writing prescriptions for other drugs such as Percocet and Vicodin.

"Doctor fraud is the core of the problem," said Sen. Chris Romer, the bill's sponsor. "Solve that and you solve 90 percent of the Wild West problem."

Romer, a Denver Democrat, said there are already four amendments ready for debate. They would: